Whether they were helping out around the family property or were watching their home town come under threat of 2009's devastating fires, young people also carry some psychological scars from that terrible summer.

In recent weeks the Bushfire Gift Program has been launched with an aim of providing assistance to young people in Gippsland who are experiencing distress as a result of the fires.

One of the local organisations that is working in this field is Berry Street which is managing a mentoring program to young people in the Baw Baw Shire and Latrobe City. The mentors receive training and aim to assist the young people get back involved in their community which they may have become disengaged from since 2009.

Anthony Giannini from Berry Street says that young people may be showing signs of carrying the trauma through increased alcohol or drug use, missing school or being withdrawn.

The project will run for two years in the Wellington, Baw Baw, South Gippsland and Latrobe areas.